Remember the thrill of being on stage for the first time, with the bright lights shining down and the hushed anticipation of the audience? Lucy & Alex, stepped into a world where this excitement comes to life, sharing our adventure with the delightful "Shiny Friends Super Squad" by Lee Reagan Alley, illustrated by Mark Nathan Hurry. Our Daddy Daughter Bookworm journey takes us through the tale of Star and Sunny, two dynamic characters who leap off the pages thanks to their contrasting personalities and the vibrant illustrations that accompany their story. We explore Star's love for music and performance and Sunny's genius for baking and inventing, drawing parallels between their experiences and our own cherished memories.
Our conversation meanders through the book's unique narrative structure, swapping between Star and Sunny's perspectives, which offers young readers a captivating glimpse into each character's world. We discuss how this approach not only keeps the pages turning but also enhances the story's depth, allowing us to see the world through their distinct eyes. As we delve into the intricacies of their lives and the bonds they share, we reflect on the importance of friendship, creativity, and the courage to stand in the spotlight. So come along, grab your coziest reading nook, and tune in to find out why "Shiny Friends Super Squad" might just be the perfect addition to your family's library.
Click here to purchase the book: Below you’ll find links to the book on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Daddy Daughter Bookworms earns from qualifying purchases. https://amzn.to/3twuvFu
For more information on what Care 1st Training Group can do for you. https://care1stcpr.com/
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Speaker 1:
You're listening to the Daddy Daughter Bookworm sponsored by CareFresh Training Group, where we talk about torchens books ["Touchens Bookworms"]. Hello bookworms. My name is Lucy.
Speaker 2:
And I'm Alex, and today we are learning about some superstars, aren't we?
Speaker 1:
Yes, we are. This week we're reviewing Shawnee Friends Super Squad. Star of the.
Speaker 2:
Show. So why don't you tell us who wrote the book?
Speaker 1:
The author is Lee Reagan Alley and it's illustrated by Mark Nathan Hurry.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. Why don't you tell us a little bit more details about it?
Speaker 1:
It's published by Piggy Bank Press in Maine.
Speaker 2:
It turns out that Piggy Bank Press in Maine the woman that wrote it is actually a friend of ours who also podcasts. Ms Daphne knows her. For those of you that are looking for, if you're into scary type jump scare movies, she does a podcast called Run For your Lives. They lived in the same town together. So when I was talking to Ms Daphne she said I know her Really. Isn't that kind of funny. Yeah, what's the genre of the book?
Speaker 1:
It's a children's chapter book with pictures.
Speaker 2:
Great. Now tell us how did we find out about the book?
Speaker 1:
Piggy Bank Press saw the podcast content on social media and sent us this book.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. When you look at the cover and let me pull out the cover for a second because I just happen to have one of the book- Because Piggy Bank Press sent us two. What is the cover kind of? What do you see when you see the cover?
Speaker 1:
There is a stage and there is a girl on stage. Her name is Star. The character named Sunny is peeking out from behind the curtain. There is also an audience.
Speaker 2:
And last year you were a second grader, right? Yes, and you guys put on a play and it sounds a lot like that story, doesn't it? Yes, what type of things were familiar from that story versus the play?
Speaker 1:
Well, it wasn't a play, they had a family. Fifth grade family night.
Speaker 2:
The author wrote the story. In what kind of style? Have you read that style before, and whose point of view was the story written from?
Speaker 1:
This style was very confusing to me, because every chapter was written from either Star or Sunny's view. Every chapter it changed back and forth Star than Sunny, then Star than Sunny, and so on. One hint that the point of view had changed was when it was a sunny chapter.
Speaker 2:
When it was a sunny chapter. What were the words like?
Speaker 1:
The words were long and complicated. The book describes her as a walking dictionary.
Speaker 2:
A walking dictionary. Oh my gosh, that's so crazy. Is there illustrations in the book?
Speaker 1:
Yes, there is.
Speaker 2:
Why don't you tell us about a couple of the illustrations?
Speaker 1:
Well, at the beginning of a chapter, it's either Star's face or Sunny's face.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Speaker 1:
For example, at the beginning of chapter one, secrets and Lies, there was Star's face, and at the beginning of chapter two, talking Trash, there would be Sunny's face.
Speaker 2:
And there's pictures in between.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
What does Sunny look like?
Speaker 1:
She has red hair, she has freckles and in the cover, she's smiling.
Speaker 2:
And what about Star? What's so special about Star that you like she has black?
Speaker 1:
hair. She wears purple overalls, which I like, and she plays the ukulele Sunny sounds interesting.
Speaker 2:
Why don't you tell me more about Sunny?
Speaker 1:
Her mom is a professor and her dad is an inventor and she's like a little like both of them. She likes to create things.
Speaker 2:
Does she and what are some of the things that she likes to create? She bakes cakes. She likes to bake. Mm-hmm, wow, does she make icing, and is it like one of those baking competitions?
Speaker 1:
It's not a competition, dad Okay, he thinks everything's a competition.
Speaker 2:
So she likes to bake cakes and cookies? Yes, so why don't you tell me a little bit about Star? What was she like?
Speaker 1:
She likes to write and perform music. She gets lonely sometimes because she's an only child.
Speaker 2:
Did you see a lot of your situation in her, since she was an only child?
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Anything in particular.
Speaker 1:
Well, there was this picture that I found. They were at a dumpster.
Speaker 2:
This picture what page is it on?
Speaker 1:
It's on page 15.
Speaker 2:
Tell me about the picture.
Speaker 1:
Star was going in the dumpster with her friends, but her friends, Courtney and Kelsey, weren't like digging in the dumpster.
Speaker 2:
They weren't having it, were they.
Speaker 1:
They were looking from a distance.
Speaker 2:
So why does that sound like it's you like that scene?
Speaker 1:
Because, like it's funny, because Star is the only person who's doing the hard work and the other friends are just there.
Speaker 2:
And does that happen sometimes with you.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Okay, sometimes I just want to take a quick break. I wanted to talk about our sponsor.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
And what's our sponsor's name?
Speaker 1:
Care First Training Group.
Speaker 2:
What does Care First Training Group do?
Speaker 1:
They teach people how to save a life?
Speaker 2:
Mm-hmm, they teach them. Do you remember CPR, first Aid? And what's the class that we do in Westfield that you like seeing at the Westfield Recreation? Oh, babysitting. We try to help people so they feel more comfortable. Mm-hmm, if there's an emergency.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
That's absolutely right and we train people from sixth grade on up and we teach OSHA training and we teach babysitting training and new mom and we're gonna be starting to do grandparents classes.
Speaker 1:
I didn't know that I know.
Speaker 2:
You didn't know that. That's why I'm telling you. If you guys are interested and you can hear our podcast, you can go to Care First Training Group. It's carefirstcprcom. Give us a contact. We have classes all over central New Jersey. Let's get back to the story. Dun dun, dun Dun. The students in the book are in fifth grade. So do fifth graders and third graders have anything in common?
Speaker 1:
There were some fights with friends in the book, but I can relate to that because sometimes me and my friends have a hard time getting along with each other after we have a fight. Dun dun dun.
Speaker 2:
Dun, dun, dun. Is there anything else you want to say about fifth grade versus third grade?
Speaker 1:
Also there was a group of kids that were cool and popular. I don't think third graders care much about that yet.
Speaker 2:
There's not the popular kids.
Speaker 1:
Nope.
Speaker 2:
There's not the cool kids, nope, there's just the loosey kids.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Okay, that's awesome. The two main characters. They have some pretty big fights, don't they? Yeah, what are some of the things that they say to each other that they're fighting about?
Speaker 1:
Star takes credit for making a cool upcycled bag that Sunny made and gets a lot of positive attention from the popular girls.
Speaker 2:
I have a question Do you know what an upcycle bag means?
Speaker 1:
Instead of a downcycle, you reuse it.
Speaker 2:
Yes, so upcycle means that you take something and then you reinvent it. So she took a bag and made it really cool by using other things with it. So is there anything else you wanted to say about that?
Speaker 1:
Sunny stops talking to Star and won't let her borrow anything Really.
Speaker 2:
Does that cause a big problem?
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
The conflict really gets intense later in the book, right? Yes, I guess we can't give away the whole story, but have you ever heard of such a thing happening in your school?
Speaker 1:
No, things got really mean.
Speaker 2:
They got really mean in the book.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
So did you ever have friends that just weren't talking to each other at one point?
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
And did they work it out afterwards? Yes, so everybody's a big happy family, huh, yes, For now. Yes, so does Sunny get really angry a lot in the book? Yes, at what point did she say to herself that she should use her upstairs brain? What the heck is that? What is her upstairs brain?
Speaker 1:
I'm not really sure what that meant, but I know she made a list of things to do to keep her mind off of being mad and sad about the fight. But start in the list there were some creative projects, maybe using her creative part of the brain.
Speaker 2:
So we're not really sure what the upstairs brain is. Huh Nope, but does it sound kind of cool? Yes Is that somewhere you want to live, I don't get it Do you want to live upstairs brain or downstairs brain?
Speaker 2:
Or, you're not sure, brain, I'm not sure, okay, the top of the brain is thinking and creativity and the bottom part of the brain is where you have emotions and reactions and stresses are controlled. Grownups who study the brain and emotions say yeah, we should try not to flip off the lid and let the downstairs brain take over. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:
A little bit more.
Speaker 2:
That said, would you recommend this book? Yes.
Speaker 1:
I would. I would recommend this book for third graders through fifth graders.
Speaker 2:
Out of five stars, out of five superstars, how many stars do you think you'd give it?
Speaker 1:
Well, I didn't really understand this book at first, but after a little bit more reading it I understand it. So maybe like five or six.
Speaker 2:
Five or six. You want five out of five or five out of six you think of. You love it, huh, yes, once you understood it the first time, you didn't kind of understand it, but then you read, re-read it with mom and kind of understood everything. Well, that's awesome. So, lucy, why don't you tell the listeners where they can buy the book?
Speaker 1:
They can buy it the book, at their local children's bookstore or they can go to our show notes, where we have a link. You can also help our podcast by giving it a five star review.
Speaker 2:
Well, that is awesome and I know we have had some delays in episodes, but, lucy, tell the listeners about the room that we're podcasting in. What have we been doing with the room that we're podcasting in?
Speaker 1:
We've been doing some stuff with it Like what. We got a new table. We're putting soundproof squares on the wall.
Speaker 2:
What else are we doing?
Speaker 1:
We got new shelves and we're putting up LED lights.
Speaker 2:
That's going to make everything really cool, huh.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
And what else did you get on your mic?
Speaker 1:
I got a pink like soundproof pad thing.
Speaker 2:
Pad thing. Okay, I don't know what it's called. Pretty cool, huh.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
It looks like we're professional. What's coming up next for the podcast? You remember what we're going to do. Our next episode, christmas books. We're going to do a couple of Christmas books. We still have some interviews that we're going to end up doing. We just have to be able to schedule them. So I just wanted to let everybody know we do have a couple of things going on. We're going to probably close out the season after the Christmas books and then our new season is going to start in the first of the year, january. Why don't you tell the listeners how they can get in touch with us?
Speaker 1:
To submit your theories and feedback. You can email us at daddydaughterbookwormsgmailcom.
Speaker 2:
You can also follow us on Instagram and Twitter, so it's Daddy Daughter Bookworms, or DD Bookworms, as well, as TikTok is Daddy Daughter Bookworms.
Speaker 1:
And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Search Daddy Daughter Bookworms.
Speaker 2:
And we're planning on doing some more merch. We're going to come up, I think, with some sticker ideas right, I know we're going to probably make some more and then, hopefully next year, we're going to do some live in-person library reviews. Yep, what do you think about doing it in person?
Speaker 1:
It's going to be a little bit weird, but it's also going to be a little bit fun to see who actually listens to the podcast. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
And folks, we'd love to hear the books that you enjoy for the holidays, whether it's Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or any type of holiday that you like. We'd love to hear your favorite family books. That's what it's all about, right.
Speaker 1:
When we do our live, remember to bring your favorite book and we might review it on that day.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely what's in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:
Christmas and my birthday.
Speaker 2:
How old are you going to be?
Speaker 1:
Nine.
Speaker 2:
Nine.
Speaker 1:
Yes, nine.
Speaker 2:
Almost double digits.
Speaker 1:
Almost.
Speaker 2:
Big time.
Speaker 1:
In one year.
Speaker 2:
Did you talk to Santa? Yes, I did Did you tell him what you wanted.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
And do you think he'll get it for you?
Speaker 1:
I don't know.
Speaker 2:
Do you think you've been good enough?
Speaker 1:
I don't know, you don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:
You don't want books for Christmas, right?
Speaker 1:
Yes, I do.
Speaker 2:
Of course you do. What else are we doing for Christmas? Anything else that we're doing for Christmas Nothing.
Speaker 1:
We're not going anywhere.
Speaker 2:
We're just going to read books, do podcasts and have Christmas right.
Speaker 1:
Yes, and play some games on Christmas, especially beat the parents.
Speaker 2:
We got to beat the parents. Well, on that lovely note, I want to thank everybody for listening. My name is Alex.